#PsychOUT (Or a love letter to Psych)

July 7th, 2006—a quirky little series called psychpremieres on USA Network.

Serendipitous? Or mere coincidence? Dare I say, I’ve heard it both ways? (Okay, we’ll go with coincidence, but I couldn’t resist.)

Tonight, we say goodbye to psychafter 8 seasons, more than 100 episodes, and one epic musical. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, only once before have I found myself so captivated by a television show that I’ve allowed myself to become part of the online community. This is a big deal for me since I tend to shy away from most fandoms, finding them a bit too intense and tunnel-visioned for my taste. It’s difficult for me to be a vocal fan of a show because as a storyteller myself, I can’t help but but offer criticism as well as praise—and the more I love something, the more apt I am to be critical of it. (If I don’t love it, I just don’t give enough of a rat’s patoot.)

But perhaps it’s because psych in and of itself was quirky and welcoming and offered such a broad spectrum of storytelling that the fans it drew were equally quirky and welcoming and from across such a broad spectrum. In short, it was a show that offered something for everyone. I think if you asked faithful #Psych-Os what their favorite episode is, you’d have as many differing opinions as there are episodes. Except for maybe the finale—I suspect no one’s ever going to want to claim that one as a favorite simply because of what it represents.

Over 8 seasons/years, the show evolved along with the players—sometimes for the good, sometimes for the not-so-good, but it always kept us watching and curious and coming back for more. Until tonight. Tonight we say goodbye to Shawn/James, Gus/Dulé, Juliet/Maggie, Carlton/Tim, Karen/Kirsten, and Henry/Corbin (with a special shout-out to Woody/Kurt, because, yeah…) and wish them well—both the characters and their real-life counterparts. We get one last opportunity to say “Suck it!” before we wave them off into their proverbial sunset.

For me, the last eight years have brought so much—both professional and personal—but one of the greatest gifts of the past eight years however, have been the friendships forged in the common love for this quirky, ridiculous, smart, clever, sometimes maddening show, including with many of you directly involved with the show. Some of those friendships have transcended cyberspace to become tangible real-life things, but just because I haven’t met all of you yet, doesn’t mean that the friendships are any less valid or real to me. Just ask the people I met online more than fifteen years ago because of another little show called Buffy. (Just sayin’.)

psych may be coming to an end, but by no means is it the end of psych.

And to bring this back around to the opening of my little missive, in 2006 I started on an unexpected journey—no, not just watching psych, although yes, that was unexpected and a hell of a journey, but rather, with young adult literature. Now, eight years later, that journey also comes to an end as I move on into writing new and different things.

Serendipitous? Or mere coincidence?

Dare I say, I’ve heard it both ways?

To the cast and creators of psych—I humbly thank you all for the many, many laughs and tears and hours of entertainment. I wish you all the very, very best going forward.